Say Hello to Another
Scam
The raging corporate war over the introduction of limited mobility telephone services has turned political, with the Prime Minister's Office being charged with subverting the regulatory system and favouring a few business houses. An INDIA TODAY investigation looks at the conflict between the sanctimonious claims and the grim reality.

Ballot Boxwallahs
The approaching assembly elections have brought to life five states which are set to witness a stiff fight and whose results can have a big impact on all major parties. A profile of the prime contenders who could tilt the balance either way.

Fall From Grace
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Unnatural Alliance
The CNG controversy has taken a new turn, with doubts being raised about the propriety of the Delhi Government's selection of Nugas as the sole supplier of the conversion kit.

The Doon Boom
The city that houses Doon School is now playing host to a whole array of new education barons--with big money and even bigger ambitions.

THE NATION: CONGRESS

Hands Tied

After V. George, it was Ajit Jogi and V.S. Koujalagi who took the sting out of the Congress' Tehelka offensive

Last week, Vincent George, private secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, suffered a blow worse than the disproportionate assets case that the CBI had slapped on him a fortnight ago. For the first time in 20 years of his employment with the Gandhis, he wrote out a leave application and was confident that Sonia would reject it. He was after all the man who guided her first steps in public life, put in incredibly long hours of work and was therefore indispensable. Sonia did not think so. She promptly granted leave, dashing George's hopes that she would stand by him in his hour of crisis.

Does this make for a ruthless Sonia? Not really. George's fate, party circles point out, does not strictly fall under the realm of a personal whim. It was rather a compulsion. Sonia had no choice but to distance herself from him at a time when the party had launched a nationwide campaign to oust the ''corrupt, communal National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government'' following the Tehelka expose. The CBI had filed a fir in the disproportionate assets case against George within a week of Sonia calling for fighting ''every battle, waging every war'' at the AICC session in Bangalore.

The case ensured that the party failed to take full advantage of the defence deals expose and left it mounting a campaign against the Government with its hands tied. Central leaders, who had fanned out to state capitals to supervise the campaign, had to confront uncomfortable questions about George. ''The moment we talked about the BJP president receiving a bribe, we were asked by journalists whether we had a separate yardstick for George. By going on leave, he has saved us some embarrassment,'' says a leader.

The party's discomfiture, however, did not end with George. Tehelka's sting operation which gave the party an opportunity to blunt the BJP's moral edge, also opened its own can of worms. A week later, when the party was going to town with the footage of BJP president Bangaru Laxman receiving money, it had to deal with its own mini-Bangaru. A video showed its Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president V.S. Koujalagi receiving Rs 20,000 from a contractor.

The offence as such was old and Koujalagi was, in fact, appointed to the party post even while the matter was pending before the state Lokayukta. The new element was the videograph. It forced the Congress central leadership to ease out Koujalagi as it had taken a moral high ground on the Tehelka issue.

No sooner had it coped with the Koujalagi tape than the party was confronted with headlines on the impropriety of Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi submitting a false affidavit for a petrol pump dealership way back in 1995. Jogi, then a Rajya Sabha member, had shown an incredibly low annual income. He had to surrender the dealership the same year, when confronted with the evidence. Nevertheless, the false affidavit has returned to haunt him and the party.

''We had anticipated action against George but not revival of other old cases. They acted as irritants,'' admits an AICC functionary. The irritants also forced the party to go-slow on street-fighting and may eventually persuade it to return to parliamentary business as the House reconvenes in the post-recess budget session this week. A party MP says ruefully, ''Stalling the House proceedings did not help us. It is not going to help us in the states going for polls as the NDA is not a factor in any of the states. In at least two states, we are fighting the Left Front.'' Such tactics had also put the Congress on the defensive in its nationwide campaign. ''We had to explain to the public that we were not power-hungry or keen to bring the Government down. In the past, our two attempts to do so had worked against us in the elections,'' says a party leader. Sonia has been careful to stress that she was not in a hurry to form government. The only time she betrayed her interest was in her address to the Confederation of Indian Industry in February, when she spoke about being in the driving seat soon.

MetroScape

Wealth Of Art
April 8 saw an unabashed get together of Mumbai's Who's Who when the annual Harmony Show, well known as "Tina Ambani's baby", celebrated its sixth showing at the Nehru Centre.
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Looking Glass

Bangalore Hotel:
Park.hotel

Mumbai Store:
Regent Watch and Jewellery Boutique

A war of words is on at the Jammu border where India is trying to build a fence to stop infiltration, much to Pakistan's dislike, reports
INDIA TODAY's Special Correspondent Ramesh Vinayak in Despatches.